Monster trucker always thought big

Richard “Native” Stevens believes moms think monster trucks are everything to be worried about.

But to Stevens, a 21-year-old from Vader, Wash., they’re the stuff dreams are made of. Big, crushing, mashing and munching dreams, that is.

“Everyone asks me what it takes to drive, and I tell them you gotta be really tough or really crazy,” Stevens said of his monster exploits in Renegade, the truck he drives at rallies. “I’m a little bit more crazy. I’m actually kind of a wimp.”

Stevens and some 100 other contestants will race, roar and slog through mud at a Nitro Promotions monster truck rally Friday and Saturday at the Kootenai County Fairgrounds in Coeur d’Alene.

Sporting a mohawk haircut, Stevens spent Wednesday at a fellow racer’s house working out the kinks on new shocks and preparing to put the huge, 66-inch tires on his hulking monstrosity of a rig.

Monster truck shows have both a popular following and a curiosity factor that brings people to the entertainment, said Chris Roy, owner of Nitro Promotions of Winlock, Wash., the organizer of this weekend’s festivities.

Roy, 36, has been driving his own truck, High Anxiety, in different incarnations for 15 years. He created Nitro five years ago to stage monster truck rallies, with his first show in Coeur d’Alene.

Half a decade later, he has assembled a group of trucks, including Renegade, and travels mainly around the West in search of crowds that want to see racing, mud bogging and a slew of monster truck events. The shows include wheelie competitions, car crushing and freestyle stunts where drivers try not to end up on their roofs – and look cool doing it.

For Stevens and Roy, monster trucks are a way of life, ingrained in them at young ages and forever screaming “smash.”

Roy said he became interested in the motorized beasts after falling in love with the infamous monster truck “Bigfoot” in seventh grade.

“That was my love in high school through everything else,” he said. “In college I just decided to get my first truck.”

For a run-of-the-mill truck, people can spend $50,000, Roy said. For a high-end model, it can cost much, much more.

Renegade, the truck driven by Stevens, cost Roy about $250,000 for the brand-new chassis parts, body, engine and various widgets. Roy and Stevens built the chassis themselves in about three months after cutting, grinding and welding together pieces of steel.

Stevens said he became a fan of the trucks after a stint as a street racer. Deciding he didn’t want to get in trouble with the law, a friend told him about a guy who drove monster trucks from Stevens’ hometown. It turned out to be Roy, who would become his best friend.

But the love of the sport hit Stevens earlier, when his grandmother took him to a monster truck rally.

“I started crying and told her I wanted to drive a monster truck,” he said. “This is why I do it. I do it for the 6-year-old boy in the crowd telling his grandma he’s gonna race.”

Roy hired Stevens for his skills with Fiberglas, which makes up the bodies of monster trucks, allowing for quick repair. Stevens started racing 18 months ago.

Stevens, whose nickname “Native” embraces his Makah American Indian heritage, said there’s something for everyone at the shows. Elderly people come out of curiosity, he said. Children are in awe of the huge trucks that can leap 10 feet in the air with 700- to 1,200-pound tires that are taller than the kids themselves. Others come for the love of trucks and the raw power.

Some can get seriously hurt in wrecks as trucks hurl off jumps or fly over cars – or onto them. Stevens sported a minor case of whiplash Wednesday after a recent jump that had him land helter-skelter.

“Most 10,000-pound vehicles don’t go 10 feet in the air,” he said. “It’s like getting in a 30 mph car wreck.”

Stevens said he’s had some shining moments in his truck, from his introduction as “The wheelie king, Renegade,” to nearly beating the famous Gravedigger truck in a race at a San Jose, Calif., rally. “He had me by about an inch (at the finish line), maybe two,” Stevens said.

He’s proud that he almost upset one of the best drivers in one of the most well-funded and -sponsored rigs in the game.

But that game is partly why Roy decided to start his company.

“I didn’t like the way it was going out there,” he said. “It’s more corporate America owning stuff than the little guys running their trucks.”

Roy said at first business was good. But with the recent high gas prices, his profits have taken a dive.”When you’re spending $1,000 to $2,000 a week on fuel, making money has been almost an impossible thing,” he said. “That’s my current soapbox, the oil prices.”

But it’s more about the love of it and having a different attitude than the big rich guys, Roy added.

Stevens said that’s why many get into the sport, and why many watch it.

“Everybody loves monster trucks in my eyes,” he said. “Except for my girlfriend.”